The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-06-17
THE FRArRIcIDEs.

| Under the above caption, to-day'i
Pioneer. Press reviews letter written fol
Its columns by Mr.. w. B. Dean purport.
ing to correct certain misconstructionf
which Judge Perkins put upon the
formers remarks at the Business Mems
convention recently held in this city.
Letting the matter drop 80 far as 1t con.
Germs what Judge Perkins said and the
reply of Mr.. Dean, it would be an in.
Justice to fellow citizen to pass the
criticism made upon Gen. Pope's posi-
ton without word. Quoting from the
Pioneer Press editorial we find:
Mr.. Pope, the senator from Blue
Earth county, took a leading part, as a
member of the senate committee on rail-
roads, in preparing the railroad legisla-
ton of last winter. He is an honest and
able man. He was honest enough last
winter to make no secret of the motives
which animated him and Of the objects
he sought to attain in snch legislation.
He openly avOwed that he was not after
the rallroads-in other words, that he
was not seeking legislation which would
protect the people from oppressive rail-
road tariifs-sO much as be wanted legis-
lation which would injure st. Paul and
Minneapolis, check their prosperity
and destroy their business advantages.
When the Pioneer Press presumes to
put into Senator Pope's mouth the words
1t has seen fit to do in the latter part of
the above paragraph, it scruples not to
utter the most damnable falsehood it has
been guilty of for some time. Senator
Pope did say that he desired to do moth
ing that should tend to cripple the rail-
roads, but he would scorn to utter such
a demagogic expression. as is attributed
to him about destroying the business in
terests or advantages of st. Paul and
Minneapolis.
Senator Pope is Democrat, and upon
this point he is entirely at variance
with the views entertained by the
FREE PRESS, but that he is hypocrite
will take better evidence and
stronger arguments than the Pioneer
Press has yet been able to produce to
convince the people of this section that
ii is true.
That Minneapolis and st. Paul have
enjoyed privileges and favors not ac-
corded to other points in the past is too
true; that those privileges and favors
are necessarily curtailed by the provis-
ions of the State and Interstate laws
cannot be denied, hence wailing and
crashing of teeth. But one thing the
people of St. Paul and Minneapolis are
given due notice of and that is the posi-
ton the Pioneer Press has seen fit to as
sumo toward the Southern part of the
state will do their city no good. People
in this portion of the commonwealth are
quite as honest as in some others, and
they do not like to be charged with be-
ing everything but honest and conscien-
tious The sooner the p. p. is muzzled
the better it will be for the interests of
the sanity city.
The shippers and for that matter, con-
sumers, of Southern Minnesota want an
equal division of freight tariff. They
are perfectly willing, aye anxious, that
the twin cities should secure low rates,
but in securing this they do not want to
be obliged to pay premium upon their
traffic, and thus be brought to the mercy
of st. Paul and Minneapolis jobbers any
more than those cities want to be placed
at the mercy of Chicago jobbers.
Fair play works injury to no one, and
this portion of the state is working for
nothing else. Let the people of the
twin cities do the best they can on tar
iffs,, this part of the state will do the
same and the good Lord will take care of
the balance.